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The Venezuelan Regime Is Coming Apart

Maduro frees a dissident from prison, casting a light on fissures within the country’s Chavismo elite.

By

Vanessa Neumann

July 10, 2017 6:47 p.m. ET

Venezuelans got a surprise Saturday morning when the country’s Supreme Court released opposition leader Leopoldo López from prison to house arrest, citing “health problems.” Why now? Americans may recall President Trump’s February tweet demanding Mr. López be freed. Has the regime of President Nicolás Maduro at last yielded to international pressure?

Not likely. Mr. Maduro’s objective—for he controls the Supreme Court, whose justices are party appointments—seems to have been to quiet street protests by making the...